Anya Gupta Published in Journal of Organic Chemistry

Anya Gupta, a BMB senior, was recently published in the Journal of Organic Chemistry as first author on her paper titled, “Thermodynamic Understanding of an Aza-Michael Reaction Enables Five-Step Synthesis of the Potent Integrin Inhibitor MK-0429″. Anya worked with Dr. Matthew Condakes at Bristol Myers Squibb in Small Molecule Drug Discovery on this research.

“We optimized and expanded the substrate scope (>30 examples) of an Aza-Michael reaction that we determined to be under thermodynamic control. Using the optimized reaction allowed for a streamlined synthesis (5 steps instead of 12) of integrin inhibitor MK-0429, which was previously taken into clinical trials for prostate cancer and osteoporosis.”

In the paper, Anya and Dr. Condakes note how this research can apply to the treatment of a myriad of diseases involving defective integrins. You can read the full paper here. Congratulations Anya!

Anya Gupta
Anya outside the lab